Plate surface



Iwaxmh 114, i933. C, EATEHOLTS LQLS? PLATE SURFACE Filed July 18, 1929 Ww jf Patented Mar. 14, 1933 UNITED sTATss PATENT? oi-rica QLIITON BATEHQLTS, 0l 300816K FALLS, NEW YOBI. BSIGNO T0 um mBULATION IANUTACTUBIIG mum, ING., 0l HOOQIOI im m @EPURATION 0l' m YGBI PLATE SURI'AGB Application med July 18, 1929. Serial Ho. 379,198.

This invention pertains to plate surfaces.

it provides for the secure and permanent surfacing with glass, or with other vitreous or with ceramic material, of a large flat surfme on a. molded solid body, as, for example, a body made of a molded condensation prod'- iict of henol and an aldehyde or of a synthetic rub er. The article as a whole, having the plate surface of the invention and herein referred to as a plate, ma for example he a tray, as a tray for smo ers use, or a serving tray or plate, or a table top, or any other article on which such a surface is desired. While the plate surface to the covering of which the invention relates will usually be flat, or approximately so, and is so represented in the description which follows, it

, will be obvious that the application of the invention is not limited to t s form of plate. And while the portion of the article for which the invention provides a'vitreous coveringmaybeessentiallyiiat, the other surfaces of the article may have any desired shape.

Hitherto, plates of this composite character have not been hewn so far as i am aware. if it has been attain ted to hold a glass covering by reliance on p aster of Paris, cement or glue, it has not been found possible to retain the glass in a securely permanent manner. With such a surface protection, the plate is protected against becoming chipped or charred when in use, as it might be if made wholl of the synthetic material, and it is considerably lighter, stronger and less expensive than if made wholly of glass or porcelain.

'By the present invention, a plate of vitreons material is mounted as an insert over a broad surface of the synthetic molded ma# terial and is held securely by mechanical means-as by interlocking-by the full cohesive strength` of the molded material around the edges of the insert. ihe interiochin formation of the edge of the insert is obtained by cutting the insert from a larger plate. Assuming it to be glass, the edge thus 6ciit will have a characteristic conchoidal fracture, or if it be porcelain or ceramic material, it may have a granular fracture; but in either case, the edge surface referred to above as being cut will be actuall a fractured surface, rather than a shea surface, and will have irre ar indentations and projections which wi constitute interlocking joints with the reverse piijections and indentations that will be form precisely fitting them, when the material surrounding its edge flows, under heat and pressure, in the molding operation. v

il have found that an insert of this kind can, by the present invention, readily be fixed in place in a tray of synthetic lastic material, the best time being during t e molding o ration. A tray of this kind has many a vantages, among them that it is easily cleaned, that it is inexpensive to manufacture, that it may be eifectively embellished by a printed, imprisoned ornamental sheet under the glass, that it and its embellishment are not subject to being marred by scratch' chipping or burning, and that it is of eing made in an infinite variety o patterns at practically no cost for the changing from on e pattern to another. Other advantages wlll be apparent as the description of the invention proceeds.

For purposes of illustration, the plate shown is a smokers tray provided with a vitreous insert, spcciically glass, and an embellishing insert of white paper. In the drawing,

Figure l shows the tray as seen from above;

Figure 2 shows, in cross section, an elevation of the tray;

Figure 3 shows a cross section at the joint, represented conventionally and greatly enlarfred and figure 4 shows a cross-section of the insert in the process of being molded in place.

The tray consists mainly of a molded body 10, bem the final, solid condensation product of suita le materials, selected at option from among the many which are available for such work, for example, that described in the patents of William W. Carter, Nos. 1,251,862 and 1,251,863 of January 1, 1918, entitled Bubber substitute and process of making the same. lt is customary in making molded articles of this general character to subject the material to heat and pressure within the ed separately, the interior bottom confines of a mold, the mold giving the desired sha to the article. The same can be done in 's case, since it -is not necessary to use different equipment from that now available. The tray shown in the gures is intended to be re resentative, in this sense, of a molded plate o any desired material and degln the top of the base of the tray shown l in Figure 1, there is located the vitreous insert 11, constituting the bottom of the interior of the tra In the form illustrated, this is interlocke in a recess 12 of thematerial 10,` the interlocking being accomplished by the flowing of the plastic material to fit the convex ortions 14 and the concave portions 15 ofp the conchoidal fracture at the edge of the insert. It is merely necessary to lay the glass and the embellishing insert 13, if any, on the bottom of the mold before the thetic plastic material is introduced. gilis latter may be introduced in sheet form or as a preformed pill, but is usually intro duced as a powder which, under heat and ressure, first melts and then solidies. gvhile molten, the high pressure makes it fiow perfectly. e

In view of the fact that the face of the glass 11 which is u ermost in Figures 2 and 3 lies, as shown in igure 4, on the fiat surface of the bottom part 16 of the mold, the glass itself, or any other insert 13 which accompanies it, becomes in a sense the effective bottom of the mold. When the molding material then iows in the mold, it Hows into the most intimate contact with the exposed side and the edges of these inserts. Thus it surrounds the inserts, except that side of the glass which lies against the base of the mold, and, solidiing in this position, interlocks itself with e conchoida edges of the glass.

The result is that the gla and the body of the tray are interlocked by reason of the irregularities, comprising recesses and projectlons in the ed of the glass, which intermesh with identically reversed cooperating projections and recesses. If it is desired to revent any danger of the molten material ing undesirably forced under the edge of l0 the lass in the mold, there may be provided in tige mold bottom a shallow recess 17 fitted to receive the inserted glass. As shown in Figure 4, this recess serves the further function of easily centering and holdi the glass in the desired position during the owing of the material. The embellishing insert 13 may be a printed or painted picture or other desi Ifdlesired, the tray as a whole ma be molding machined or otherwise manipulated to provide an a propriately shape undercut recess. The isk 11 may then be inserted, being held in place by cement extending under the ma- Il terial 10 of the tray and interlocking with the glass insert 11. This, however, is an expensive procedure as compared with molding the disk in during the rocess of forming the tray and does not pro uce such good results. In a slightly different form, the invention may also be practiced by forming the tray as a whole and then, before cooling, pressing the disk 11 into place. This procedure relies in part on the tendency of the plastic to yield under pressure, thereby conformin to the shape of the edge of the disk 11, an in part on the shrinkage induced by the subsequent cooling. Both of these factors contribute to brin about the interlocking of the tray materia with the irregularities of the fractured ed e of the disk.

this description of the invention, the

terms conchoidal and granular have been used specifically in connection with the fracture o vitreous materials, such as glass, and ceramic materials, such as pottery. For a eneric term which will include both of these actures, and also fractures which may partake of the characteristics of both to some extent, the word irregular is used in thetic-- companying claims. Vitried materials and ceramics have common, or equivalent, characteristics so far as the resent invention is concerned, so the term aked earthen material is used herein with a signification broad enough to cover both.

Inasmuch as the above descri tion is for illustrative urposes only, it w' be understood that t e invention is not restricted to the form, the arrangement of parts, or the materials mentioned, but is capable of variation within wide limits. It is intended that the patent shall cover, by suitable expression in the appended claims, whatever features of novelty exist in the invention herein disclosed.

I claim as my invention:

1. An article in the nature of a plate comprising a body and an unitary surfacing plate therefor, the said surfacing plate having conchoidal edge surfaces, and the material of the said body being flowed into engagement with the conchoidal irregularities of the edge surface of the plate, and bein oonstricted thereon, whereby the body and its said plate surfacing are 1n contact alon a conchoidal surface and are thereby hel together.

2. An article inthe nature of a plate, comprising a molded body and an unitary suracing late therefor, covering a major art of one ace thereof; said surfacing plate aving the margins of its face free from being covered b the said body or other fastenin material ut having at its edge a surface o conchoidal fracture into whose in' arities the material of the body is mol ed so that it and the material of the surfacing late interen age there, irregularly over an under eac other between the planes of the 130 thickness of that late; whereby the said surfacinplate is he d on the said body.

3. dish comprising a body of synthetic organic molded material, inherently stiff and 5 constituting the body of the dish, and a surfacing plate of glass, held directly byethe body material; said body materlal molded into a conchoidal surface of mutua contact, of lass and material at the edge of 10 the lass, w ereby the glass plate is secured on t e face of the body.

Signed at Hoosick Falls New York.

CLINTON sA'rEHoL'rs. 

